By Steve Marinucci
Published Monday, June 2, 1986, San Jose (CA) Mercury News
CABLE viewers in San Jose, Cupertino and Mountain View will be among the first in the country to view the new televised gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the U.S. Senate that begin today.
The proceedings are being broadcast on the new C-SPAN II cable channel and start at 11 a.m. The Senate sessions will be preceeded by two hours of interviews, starting at 9 a.m.
A C-SPAN spokesman says more than 5 million homes nationwide will be able to view the broadcast, which marks the first televised coverage of Senate floor proceedings available to the public. C-SPAN has been broadcasting coverage of the House of Representatives since 1979.
The C-SPAN II coverage will continue when the Senate is in session for the duration for a six-week test period.
PBS will cover only Monday's session. KQEC (Ch. 32) will also broadcast three hours of proceedings from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. KTEH's (Ch. 54) coverage will last from 1 to 2:30 p.m. A one-hour recap of the day's activities will be shown on Ch. 32 and KCSM (Ch. 60) at 8 p.m.
The Senate will decide July 29 whether to continue the televised coverage.
